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With a strong pipeline of research products,Glenmark Pharmahas the potential to become the first Indian pharma company to have its own innovative patented drug - a credential many Indian pharma companies are vying for. In an interview with ET,chairman & managing director Glen Saldanhaspells out the company's long-term vision for this decade.

What are the key challenges you will have to tackle in the years ahead?

There are many challenges. Globally, this decade will see a lot of change in the pharma industry. Due to problems plaguing the Big Pharma firms such as drying up of product pipelines and poor R&D productivity, their default position is to get into generics. That is why you see an Abbot buying a Piramal and other similar examples. They are moving down their value chain. So, businesses that are already into branded generics will get squeezed out amidst competition.

The second challenge is, of course, the innovation aspect. For branded generics companies to survive, they will have to move up the value chain. So, that is what we have been trying to do in the past 10-11 years and it is a very difficult game. But I think the key is to be able to innovate. Over the next decade, if the companies do not make the transition to selling innovative products, they are going to struggle. The third challenge is related to FDA, and the fact that drug approvals are slow for innovative products.

For Glenmark per se, our biggest challenge is our ability to execute on scale in all areas. Other challenges include making sure we pick up the right targets for research. Partnership or deal-making on out-licensing is not challenging for Glenmark. We have done 6-7 deals now and we know what it takes to close a licensing deal and which company to look for. On the generics side, the challenge is the fact that there is a patent cliff with the 2014-2015 deadline after which the patent pipeline starts drying up.

What will be your strategies to overcome the challenges?

One area is to aggressively continue to invest in innovation. The second is to continue looking for niche segments in the generics space. On the branded generics side, we continue to look for differentiation in terms of product portfolio and pipeline.

How do you look at competition or whom do you identify as your competition?

In our business, in each therapeutic area you have a different competitor. Likewise, in the innovation space, you have different sets of competitors. We have always looked at models such as Novartis and Sandoz as a kind of benchmark that we have set for ourselves in terms of the overall business model. Among the Indian players, we really do not look at any one player as a competitor. They all have different business models.

Where do you see the company ten years from now?

Our thinking is that we have to be an innovation-led company. The idea is to bring a couple of molecules to the market that will help transform Glenmark from being an Indian company to a global multinational like a mini Pfizer or a mini GSK by using innovation and novel products. It's been 11 years that we have been working on it and it is a very difficult game.

I believe if there is someone who has a shot in the Indian industry in bringing something novel to the market on a global basis — it is us. We think so it will happen in this decade. We have targeted the 2015-2017 timeframe. Between those three years, we should have at least one molecule coming to the market from our own pipeline. For the next three years, the other parts of the business should grow at over 25% CAGR.

What is the plan to increase shareholder value?

If we meet our aspirational value, it will create huge wealth for our shareholders — our aspirational value being launching our first innovative product. Today, after working for more than 30 years, our revenues are nearing a billion dollars. If we launch one novel product that alone will bring us $1 billion in revenues. That is when the shareholders will see the huge upside.